Staten Island express bus overhaul coming in 2018

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Staten Island express buses will travel directly to and from Midtown or lower Manhattan, routes will be combined and underused stops will be eliminated as part of a drastic plan meant to improve the borough's complex and outdated network.

Staten Islanders will have several months to comment on the proposed changes before any are implemented sometime next year.

The average end-to-end route running time would be cut by about 20 minutes under the concept outlined by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or MTA, to an Advance editorial board on Wednesday.

Roughly 99.5 percent of riders will have similar or faster average travel times than their trips today, the MTA said.

Exactly which stops will be axed or where routes will go hasn't been determined, but Downtown and Midtown service will be along "key corridors" to the most popular destinations and subway connections in Manhattan.

Bus stops on Staten Island and in Manhattan will also be re-spaced but their locations haven't been determined either.

The network redesign is comprised of 19 routes that will serve nearly all existing Staten Island express bus riders. Eleven routes will go to Midtown and eight will travel to downtown Manhattan, where riders can transfer to local buses or the subway.

Separating the two service areas will allow Midtown routes to travel in Brooklyn or New Jersey in case of traffic issues or accidents without changing where bus stops are located.

The study was supposed to be released in December, but was delayed five months because the MTA wanted to ensure the right solutions were proposed and set up mechanisms for community outreach.

Staten Islanders can read about the proposal and comment on the changes online at www.mta.info/SIExpressBus. More public outreach will also be conducted at community board and neighborhood meetings this year.

The first part of the MTA's study released this week focuses on express buses. A look at local routes on Staten Island is expected to be complete later on, but officials wouldn't say when that will be released.

'CHANGE IS UNAVOIDABLE'

Plans for express and local buses are conducted separately because most riders don't transfer between them during a single commute. There are 400 express buses and 350 local buses serving Staten Island.

The express bus network was primarily developed in the 1960s and 1980s. The borough's demographics and reliance on certain routes have shifted in the decades since then and increased congestion, particularly in Manhattan, have made bus trips long and sometimes unreliable.

"The route structure is old, travel times are long, wait times can be inconsistent, reliability is a problem, which then causes overcrowding," said Jonathan Hawkins, a bus planner who worked on the study.

The changes were designed to generally maintain service in existing areas and operate within current budget and bus fleet constraints. (The study was also conducted with existing MTA money and resources.)

The MTA acknowledges in the study that "some level of change is unavoidable for many riders."

DOWNTOWN AND MIDTOWN ROUTES

Roughly 36,000 riders take express buses between Staten Island and Manhattan on the average weekday today, according to the MTA.

The MTA's reorganization of the network focuses on where riders get on buses and where they're going, rather than specific routes.

An estimated 96 percent of existing Staten Island express bus riders only get off at stops in Downtown or Midtown. But nearly 17,000 riders use routes that serve both areas.

Sending buses directly to those destinations would reduce the average miles spent on clogged Manhattan streets by half, from 3 to 1.5, according to the MTA.

CUTTING BUS STOPS

Some 83 percent of express bus riders use about 50 percent of existing stops. The bottom 20 percent have only roughly 2 percent of ridership.

"The network wasn't design to be a 'tour' of Staten Island," said Darryl Irick, acting president of New York City Transit.

Borough President James Oddo added that "people like me" were part of the problem: Requesting new bus stops to help vocal constituents.

"Who doesn't want to give Mrs. McGillicuddy a bus stop?" Oddo asked.

Average distances between new stops on Staten Island and Manhattan will be similar to Select Bus Service routes -- about every half mile.

Express bus routes have an average of 27 stops on Staten Island and 12 in Manhattan, all spaced roughly every quarter mile.

"For those who get on early, it's a very arduous journey," Hawkins said.

WILL YOUR STOP CHANGE?

The exact location of new bus stops will be determined by existing ridership so that the fewest people are impacted.

MTA also needs to work with the city Department of Transportation and NYPD to determine the best routes. Redesign plans will also incorporate a congestion plan the city is expected to release in the coming weeks or months.

The MTA believes most riders would use the same stops they use today. Riders who now use stops that are eliminated are expected to face no more than a five minute walk to another one.

Officials admitted some riders will be upset at the redesign, but the changes are intended to help the greatest number of riders.

The redesign is meant to also increase service frequency by simplifying the routes.

Right now there's eight routes along the Hylan Boulevard corridor that operate every nine minutes during peak hours. Under the changes, there would be four routes operating every 4.5 minutes along the corridor.

The frequency of service on routes will be determined by ridership levels, as is the case today. Like now, most routes under the redesign will operate during weekday morning and evening rush hours only. Peak hour routes will all start and end at the same times.

Popular routes will operate off-peak and on the weekends. The MTA needs to keep analyzing to determine specific routes, but more than three are expected to have off-peak and weekend hours under the redesign.

Some existing Staten Island routes -- on the South Shore in particular -- are often indirect and overlap and run in opposite directions. The redesign would organize routes to increase speed and minimize turning.

"You shouldn't go backwards to go forwards," Hakim said.

The average number of turns will be cut from 10 to 6.5 per route. The redesign will also increase the time on running "non-stop" on highways from 63 to 72 percent.

"There's no wand in a drawer somewhere that we can wave," Oddo said. "This study and these changes are not going to take a hellacious commute and suddenly make it good, but we can improve the commute. We can make it more efficient. We can give Staten Islanders time back."